OREANDA-NEWS. Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is announcing its ‘Wireless Unified Networks’ strategy which blends the upload and download capabilities of Wi-Fi® and cellular technologies to enable higher capacity and give subscribers a more consistent and higher-quality mobile voice, data and video experience in high-traffic or low-signal locations. This approach will allow operators to combine standalone cellular and Wi-Fi networks into one unified wireless network for home, office, and outdoor environments.

As more people and devices become connected, one of the biggest challenges facing mobile operators and their customers is how to meet demand for secure, high-speed video and data with consistent high-quality whether subscribers connect over Wi-Fi or cellular networks. While both technologies continue to evolve, each has challenges that can impact the subscriber experience. By combining the unique strengths of Wi-Fi with those of LTE, it is now possible to offer the subscriber a truly compelling experience.

Up to now, operators would switch users between cellular and Wi-Fi to load-balance the network or users would manually switch between networks to seek optimum performance. Alcatel-Lucent’s solution unifies the user experience across Wi-Fi and cellular for the first time. As part of its Wireless Unified Networks strategy, Alcatel-Lucent is introducing two separate capabilities that blend Wi-Fi and cellular access. The Wi-Fi boost uses cellular to enhance the performance of Wi-Fi networks and the Cellular boost uses unlicensed spectrum to enhance the performance of cellular. Combined, they maximize performance for subscribers across both access technologies.

Mike Schabel, Vice President of Small Cells in Alcatel-Lucent said: “As an industry we have historically treated cellular and Wi-Fi as unique technologies. For example, the industry debates the merits of Voice/Data over Wi-Fi versus Voice/Data over LTE. From a consumer perspective, it should simply be just Wireless. With Wireless Unified Networks, we are excited to be taking the important steps to transform and greatly enhance the user’s wireless experience in the home, at work, and in dense venue networks by combining existing Wi-Fi and cellular networks into one high performance network.”